Edmonds Environmental Council press release

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EDMONDS ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL

PRESS RELEASE

December 30, 2025

EDMONDS ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL URGES EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL TO ADHERE TO BEST AVAILABLE SCIENCE IN UPDATING THE CRITICAL AREA ORDINANCE

 

The Edmonds Environmental Council (EEC) urges the City Council to use the Best Available Science to update the Critical Area Ordinance including the prohibition on Underground Injection Wells in the Deer Creek Critical Area (CARA) in accordance with State Law requirements for critical areas that “safeguard the public from hazards to health and safety”.  If new information becomes available on effective methods to completely remove toxic chemicals such as PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) from stormwater in CARAs, the critical area regulations can be revised accordingly at that time.

The EEC has evaluated the scientific publications and agency documents - - the ”Best Available Science” - - applicable to protecting* the Deer Creek drinking water aquifer and posted them for City Council (and public) review. This review of scientific studies reveals that:

  • PFAS (are man-made, persistent chemicals found in many products and easily leach into our “water environment” with serious consequences to humans and wildlife. They are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down and conventional stormwater treatments are ineffective in removing them.
  • Drinking water is the principal source of PFAS getting into humans causing cancers, immune issues, thyroid problems, and developmental effects even at minute PFAS levels. The federal government in 2024 established a 4 parts-per-trillion limit for only two of the many PFAS compounds (and PFAS in stormwater in Edmonds was found to be 8-times greater than that in 2024). Scientific research is ongoing on environmental effects of additional PFAS compounds that are not easily or completely removed from water even with advanced technologies.
  • Prestigious institutions, such as the National Academy of Sciences, and state and federal agencies have called for prevention (i.e., source and conveyance control) of PFAS contamination of drinking water due to its serious human health effects. Thus, Edmonds should not be allowing underground injection (UIC wells) that concentrate PFAS into the groundwater that ‘feeds’ the Deer Creek drinking water aquifer.

However, the City’s contract attorney is advising the City Council to ‘exempt’ new development from ‘required’ protective regulations that would prohibit injection of stormwater into the Deer Creek drinking water aquifer in order to reduce costs of new development. The contract attorney is advising the City Council that this exemption is necessary to avoid a potential ‘takings’ lawsuit since the Deer Creek CARA lacks City owned stormwater pipes that new development could otherwise use (and avoid costs) to move stormwater away from the aquifer.

The EEC believes the contract attorney’s legal advice on risk of lawsuits is incomplete and inadequate because:

  • The legal advice doesn’t acknowledge Supreme Court rulings on ‘takings’ where public health and safety regulations are involved. A legal review of constitutional ‘takings’ is presented in the Cornell School of Law website and it specifically addresses when “a regulation adopted under the police power to protect the public health, safety, or welfare is not a taking.
  • The legal advice doesn’t acknowledge that allowing UIC wells in a drinking water aquifer is a blatant violation of State and federal laws on protecting public health, and specifically violates State laws on use of “Best Available Science” in protecting critical areas. Isn’t the risk of legal action against the City as great or greater than a ‘frivolous’ takings lawsuit since it involves public health and safety?
  • The legal advice doesn’t acknowledge why lack of nearby City stormwater pipes should be treated any differently from lack of nearby sewer pipe connections where developers are required to absorb costs for pipes and sewage pumps necessary for new development.

The Edmonds Environmental Council (EEC) has repeatedly asked the City of Edmonds to follow Washington State Laws that require Cities to manage critical areas in accordance with the State’s Growth Management Act (GMA) (Chapter 36.70A RCW).  And now, as part of the City’s Critical Area Ordinance update process, the EEC is again having to remind the City that limiting and/or restricting new development as well as establishing essential protective regulations for critical areas, based on best available science, is a requirement of the GMA.

Although members of the EEC were invited and did participate directly in a several-month process of updating the Critical Area Ordinance, the process was upended by a last-minute change to the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) chapter by the City’s contract attorney at the November 25th City Council Meeting.  The attorney’s change lessens the critical area protection of the Deer Creek aquifer which provides drinking water for southern Edmonds, Woodway, and Esperance.  This change increases human health risks due to contamination of the aquifer with PFAS, a toxic forever chemical that has been detected in Edmonds’ stormwater.